Your kitchen looks dated, the cabinets are the reason, and you are staring down a big decision: paint them, reface them, or rip them out and start over. The gap between those options is thousands of dollars, so it is worth understanding before you commit. Here is how refinishing, refacing, and replacing compare for a Savannah kitchen — on cost, on time, and on which one actually makes sense for your cabinets.
The three options, plainly
- Refinishing (repainting). Keep the boxes and the doors, and bring them back to life in a new color with a durable finish. The cheapest path.
- Refacing. Keep the boxes, but install new doors, drawer fronts, and a matching veneer on the box faces.
- Replacing. Tear out everything and install all-new cabinetry. The most expensive, and the only option that changes the layout.
What each one costs
The cost spread is the whole story here. Nationally:
- Refinishing — about $1,500 to $4,500.
- Refacing — about $4,000 to $9,500.
- Replacing — about $15,000 to $35,000.
Put another way, refinishing typically costs 40 to 70% less than refacing, and refacing runs 50 to 70% less than full replacement. Savannah pricing tends to land a bit under these national figures.
Which one makes sense?
Money aside, the deciding factor is the condition and layout of your existing cabinets:
- Refinish when the boxes and doors are solid and you like the layout. This is the right call for the solid-wood cabinets in a lot of older Savannah homes — they are built better than much of what you would replace them with.
- Reface when the boxes are sound but the doors are dated, damaged, or a style you cannot live with.
- Replace when the boxes are failing, or when you want to change the layout — move the sink, add an island, reconfigure the run.
What good refinishing actually involves
Refinishing is not "throw a coat of wall paint on the doors." Done right, following the same steps the pros at This Old House use, it is a real process:
- Remove doors, drawers, and hardware and label everything.
- Degrease thoroughly — kitchen grease is the enemy of adhesion.
- Sand, fill, and scuff to give the finish something to grip.
- Prime with a bonding or stain-blocking primer.
- Apply two to three thin coats of a durable cabinet enamel.
The Savannah humidity factor
Cabinet enamel reaches full hardness over a 7-to-14-day cure, and high humidity stretches that out. Rushing it in a Savannah summer is how a finish ends up tacky or chips early. Controlling the cure conditions is a big part of why a professional refinish holds up where a DIY weekend often does not.
The value angle
Refinishing is the heart of a "minor kitchen remodel," which the 2025 Cost vs. Value Report ranks among the very best returns in home improvement — recouping roughly 113% of its cost nationally. For a rental, a flip, or a kitchen you just want to enjoy again, it is hard to beat the dollar-for-dollar impact.
The bottom line
If your cabinet boxes are sound and the layout works, refinishing gives you a near-new kitchen for a fraction of replacement. If the layout has to change, that is remodel territory. Either way we can help — see our painting and cabinet refinishing work, read up on interior painting in coastal Georgia, or read about kitchen and bath remodel costs in Savannah.
Common questions
Much cheaper to refinish. Refinishing (repainting) runs about $1,500–$4,500, refacing about $4,000–$9,500, and full replacement about $15,000–$35,000. Refinishing typically costs 40 to 70% less than refacing, and refacing 50 to 70% less than replacement.
Replace when the boxes themselves are failing, or when you want to change the layout — move the sink, add an island, reconfigure the run. If the boxes are solid and you like the layout, refinishing is usually the smarter spend. Many older Savannah homes have solid-wood boxes well worth saving.
Done properly it lasts. The difference is prep and cure: degrease, sand, a bonding or stain-blocking primer, then two to three coats of durable cabinet enamel that cures to full hardness over 7 to 14 days. Savannah humidity slows that cure, which is a big reason a controlled, professional refinish holds up where a rushed DIY job peels.
Yes. Refreshed cabinets are the core of a minor kitchen remodel, which the 2025 Cost vs. Value Report ranks among the best returns in home improvement, recouping roughly 113% of its cost nationally.
Sources
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